Shakin' It Up

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind.  Luckily, it was captured on film.  Or, I suppose I should say, it was captured on memory card.    In mostly chronological order;

I was there to greet my two nieces when they got off the bus their last day of school:

Here, Rocky and CeCe project the beaming visages that can only be produced by the benefaction of freedom from Board of Education tyranny.  The bus driver must've been swept by summer vacation fever, too, as she roared away from the community bus stop before I could snap a photo of the girls next to the bus.  In a stunning coincidence, my nieces ride on an elementary school bus which has the same number as the bus their Dad and Uncle rode to their elementary school.  Here's an interesting note regarding the community bus stop;  None of the kids live within a 5-minute walk to the bus stop.  In fact, once disgorged, the students all begin walking in the same direction (on opposite sides of the street; see the boys in the background)..... the same direction which the bus continues through their neighborhood.  And right past all of their homes!  The five students that exit the bus at this community bus stop all live within a Jay Bruce-thrown baseball's distance of one another so this isn't an issue of having the three different bus stops in a 300-foot span of street but rather a mislocated community bus stop which unnecessarily forces each of the five kids to walk a distance 5-times further than is necessary.  Talk about Board of Education tyranny!

Just days before, we all gathered at Mr B's top secret bunker in an undisclosed location for a birthday party:

Mr B and Lou at left, Rocky and CeCe at right, birthday cake center on the verge of being devoured.

No sooner had the final dismissal bell of the school year rung, Lou and family hit the road for a summer vacation roadtrip to scenic St Louis, Mizzou!  First stop; the St Louis Gateway Arch [no photos have been supplied].  Second stop, Busch Stadium III for a Cardinals-Diamondbacks tilt:

Rocky and CeCe pose with their Mom outside the gates of Hades aka Busch Stadium III.  Soon thereafter, of course, it began raining.  Time to bust out the ponchos:

Lou sent me the next photo via text, suggesting their seats were "just like your season tickets at GABP:"

There are two problems with Big Brother's assertion; 1) My seats are on the infield, and 2) My seats aren't on the roof!

Among the many fun things one experiences on a vacation are the strange and exotic foods that you can't get anywhere near home.  Such as:

Fazoli's!  And:

Noble Roman's!

While Lou & family were on vacation, some of us were still hard at work.  For example:

I had dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  Nobody was there.  This has been a trend lately that had me concerned.  Concerned, that is, until the server brought my meal.  The salad had the consistency of soup and the chicken was room temperature.  I may never return.

Cruising around the Empire this past week I came across some surprising sights.  For example:

This message board outside the Michelin 5-Star Indian Creek Tavern.  Can't quite read it?  Here's a closer look:

Yes!  That's right!  On August 10th Bret Michaels of Poison "fame" will be rocking downtown Reily!  I have it on good authority that someone named Travis Tritt played there last summer.  It is my understanding that Travis Tritt is a country music star.  Can't prove it by me.

This week also saw the demolition of an Oxford landmark:

Barry's BP, formerly Don's SOHIO, at the corner of High and College is no more.  I have many fond memories of going to Don's SOHIO back in the 1970s; our union-made American cars only got about 9 miles to the gallon and often needed service and Don's SOHIO - a service station - was the place to go.  Our 1973 Dodge Crestwood station wagon didn't have air conditioning and so I can vividly recall the Ding! that announced when our car, any car, pulled into the service station.  We'd drive up to the brightly-colored red, white and blue gas pumps labeled with the different grades of fuel; Boron, Cetron and Octron.  Instantly a uniformed attendant - wearing a true uniform (none of this golf shirt with an embroidered logo junk you so often see today) would be at our window ready for direction.  Sometimes it was the boss Don SOHIO (Don Krauth) himself, sometimes it was Hank, the grandfather of Jeff & Todd Lancaster.  Hank was hilarious and always went out of his way to say or do something that would make me laugh.  The whole process of the full-service gas station amazed me as a little boy; The fuel nozzle inserted, the analog digits on the pump spinning, the hood went up, oil was checked/added, the hood went down and the windshield cleaned.  Then out came the SOHIO credit card and the handheld "swiper" (is there a more accurate term?) which made a Ku-chunk! carbon copy impression of the credit card and away we went, seemingly faster than an A.J. Foyt pit stop at that year's Indy 500.  When I was 5, 6, 7 years old I wanted to grow up and work at Don's SOHIO.  I loved the scent of leaded fuel.  That probably explains a lot.  Back in January, while recuperating from a stress fracture in my foot, Barry was kind enough to plow out my driveway but he didn't mention any changes that were on the horizon (no pun intended).  As of this writing I don't know what the future holds for Barry, BP or the corner of High and College.

Back at HQ, I spied with my little NSA eye, a nearby tent offering free (are there any other kind?) Obama phones.

"Romney?  He sucks!  Bad!"  Indeed, my fair SEIU lady.  Indeed.

Back on planet Earth, former Miami basketball coach Charlie Coles passed away in his home in Oxford last Friday.  One of the all-time great quotes;  "All I heard was.... boy, this and that!"  I encourage all of you to begin using this phrase in your daily conversations as an homage to Coach Coles.  That same night, the Reds held a moment of silence for Charlie at Great American Ball Park:

Next update; Kickin' it Belmont Stakes style.

Long-range Reconnaissance

Here's a brief, random assortment of images vaguely related to the foregoing:

The photo above purports to be of "Montgomery High School."  Don't know where, don't know when, as the old standard goes.  Among the photographs decorating the back wall are Winston Churchill and Errol Flynn.  I will leave it up to you to discern which subject was taught in that particular classroom.  What a studious, neatly-dressed group of young men and ladies.  Where are the Cult t-shirts, the unlaced Nike high-tops, the ripped and faded Levi's denim jeans, the notebooks adorned with beer brands, the students passing notes and the students gazing out the windows daydreaming of Daisy Fuentes? 

Travel once meant by train.  The photo below was taken at Washington D.C.'s Union Station in 1943:

Travel once meant, also, staying closer to home.  Below is a photo from Mad Mahler's neck of the woods, taken on the mean streets of Lancaster, Ohio in 1938:

You know that what caught my eye in the photo, above, is the Daily Racing Form banner on the telephone pole (at right).  Finally, a photo (below) from an Ohio town west of Lancaster, Urbana - also from 1938:

I like the old-school highway signs attached to the lamp post.